The Queen of the Draugr: Stories of the Nine Worlds (Thief of Midgard - a dark fantasy action adventure Book 2)

by Alaric Longward

  I felt weak as a kitten, not sure I would survive, and I plucked at a braid of fire, caressed the molten rains of fiery rivers of Muspelheim, and braided together a crude, bitter spell.

  I let go of a wall of fire, much like the enemy had, and let it surge for a tall draugr hacking at a young man, who had been crawling away. The draugr screamed, his chest exploded, arms pin-wheeling, and I let the spell surge left and right, taking others with it, burning draugr to bone, thick skulls spitting flames as they fell on their knees, amidst burning soldiers.

  And so, I made a target of myself.

  An icy spell-wind struck the men around me. And then, me.

  I was spared the killing cold, as two men rushed before me right at the moment the spell struck. We fell to our backs, one man’s arm was broken in icy, mangled flesh, another was howling with twisted jaw, his body brittle and bleeding from under blue skin.

  I saw a dark-faced draugr was to the side, charging for me. He leapt over bodies, a huge ax held high. I cursed, and tried to move, but knew I’d not make it.

  A man split him on a spear, then died himself to a thrown ax.

  I thanked Odin, and clawed my way up to a standing position. The mass of men around me, inexperienced but angry, was attacking ferociously, and the spells the draugr had used to kill so many, now worked to advance the brave men into the midst of the legion. The Northerners were splitting and hacking their way thought dozens of the enemy, and no skill of weapon was needed in that terrible brawl. And yet, the invaders met the anger of those whose homes and families had been butchered. For everyone that fell, they took two of ours with them, clawing and hacking until heaps filled the hillside. Despite that, we went forward, men spitting curses, women howling. Even the draugr were surprised by the anger of the bitter warriors. One fell spectacularly, spells spewing from his hands to all the directions. He crumbled to a heap of rot, throwing fiery spurts as he did. Another was torn off his feet, and his head sawed off. I tottered after the men, hacked my sword through a small shield wall retreating in horror, and stumbled over them. We pushed on, forward, ever forward, the dverger to the sides, some now with us. They were chanting, heaving their shields into the enemy faces, hacking, and stabbing, many falling stoically, as the legionnaires put up a spectacular fight.

  Ahead, so close, Baduhanna was roaring her challenges.

  I could see flashes of spells, and her sword in a swirling battle, “Come, the snot-filth of Hel! I’ll send you back to suck on her rot, bone gnawers!” she yelled.

  On the hillsides, the pressed, embattled nobles redoubled their efforts, all tough, stiff, and loyal, fighting like Northerners, though here and there, the legions had gotten through the lines, and a blistering battle was being fought in these spots.

  Disaster finally struck.

  Flashes of dozens of spells cut at the blue shields.

  They simply fell—dead. I saw a horde of draugr, fifty, much weakened by the massed melee, advancing in with the troops, spell whips and spells slaying, and knew Baduhanna had not seen it.

  “Kill them! Don’t let them get through! The Queen’s with them!” Thrum screamed next to me.

  A dverg caster released a spell to my right, a stabbing spear of ice, which threw down a draugr officer into ruin. I realized that one had been braiding together a spell for me.

  “You hear me?” Thrum roared.

  “I cannot get there!” I roared back, hacking at shields with my sword, trembling with weakness, vomiting blood. My sword was shuddering with huge strikes from an enemy with an ax. I kicked him to hard his leg folded in two, and Thrum axed him. I maneuvered to the middle of the enemy shield wall, but was pushed back by chanting enemy, my armor scarped and stabbed.

  Thrum pushed me. “Grow up some, and be a damned jotun! She needs you!”

  He was right. I was so very weak with the battle and the wounds, but I grew. I grew to ten feet, then twelve, and the blue tinted skin and ice cold eyes stared back at the shocked enemy walls. They screamed warnings, but it was too late. Some remaining draugr lifted their hands, and they knew what was about to happen.

  I braided together a spell of icy winds, and released it at the heart of the enemy formation, as I charged. Bits of flesh flew off, killing men and draugr brutally, and I stepped, hacked, and roared my way through the tough company of foes, reached the hillside, my eyes locking briefly with Baduhanna, who grinned at me ferociously.

  I saw the Queen of the Six Spears, her draugr fully behind the nobles. She was bellowing orders, pulling the draugr away from the charging nobles, turning them for Baduhanna. Even over the din, I heard her screaming for the remaining draugr to attack her. They did, surging forward madly, hacking down the disoriented noble ranks around Baduhanna.

  I hurried forward, ignoring the wounds, yelping with pains, as I parried as best I could. Spears flashed, and swords hacked. I slashed my sword across the foes, running over them, stumbling with wounds. I bashed my weapon down at blurry foes, killing with wild abandon, kicking and surging up, feeling the dverger following close behind.

  A jotun’s rage was a terrible thing, no matter how wounded the jotun.

  I clawed my way thought the enemy with such savagery, I didn’t feel like a man. I felt like a Beast, and that’s what I was—Beast of the North. I showed it to the stubborn men of Six Spears.

  The enemy Queen very near Baduhanna. The Aesir was whirling in surprise, as she spied the foe behind her, and the shock on her face was plain, when she saw the terrible troop of twenty remaining draugr attacking. That look was enough to make me believe she might fall. Spells reached for her, swords came at her, and her shield glowed, armor tore into pieces. The nobles roared, surging to cut down the draugr, but most draugr ignored them, and jumped at Baduhanna. Spell whips came down, her spells and shield thwarted them. Fiery spells ripped across her skin, and she was barely hurt.

  And yet, they had a surprise.

  Even the Aesir must breathe.

  The Queen of Six Spears was urging them on, preparing a spell of her own, which she released, and Baduhanna tottered in panic, choking for air that was denied her. The Queen was laughing cruelly, and spells actually touched Baduhanna now. She was standing, her body riddled with spell made wounds, some of which closed immediately, but not all. Spears, arrows, struck her, as the draugr were skillfully surrounding her. Some felt the noble’s blades, but not enough. Two savage ones were attacking her with fiery whips. One such weapon encompassed the Aesir’s arm, burning flesh, and three draugr speared her, collapsing her to the mud, and held her still.

  Baduhanna panted and roared her rage, her eyes burning, gasping for air she apparently found, as she had been thrown down and away from the spell, out of the sight of the Queen. She roared so hard, her voice shattered the air. A sea of flames burned out of her hands. The enemy fell apart around her, in burning bits of flesh and bone, and some of the soldiers of Dagnar burned into a blackened crisp. The rage of an Aesir was a spectacular thing to see. I hurried to her, my sword slashing left and right, as I finally reached her, leaving a trail of dark blood and bits of armor.

  It almost seemed like I was too late.

  A draugr, one of the few remaining, impaled her side with a spear, but she hacked him down, as she made her way for the enemy Queen. The masked creature was shaking, recoiling back, some of her followers retreating. Baduhanna turned her flaming sword at the foe. “Stay back, love,” she said thinly to me as I dragged myself after her, and I set to guarding her. The enemy queen was releasing another spell, a spear of fire. Baduhanna tottered forward, just as I slashed down a draugr on her back. The spear came for her, but she moved under it. She dropped her shield, grasped the spear with one hand, growled like an animal, and stabbed her sword into the draugr’s face. The Queen’s mouth curled and burned; as the blade went through it, and she ripped the blade out though the skull.

  I whirled, and cut down another draugr, but not the next one. That one was close. A sword’s hilt struck my face, and the one st
epped over me.

  I grasped for him, but he was faster, and moved for Baduhanna. He was braiding together a spell; a terrible spell I had not seen before. Every weapon around us rose to the air, as if unseen spirits were holding them, a legion of dozens of ghosts, and streaked for Baduhanna and me with savage speed. There was a dozen broken and nicked swords, axes, spear shafts, arrows.

  I summoned my will to fight, and gave it all I had. I changed as the weapons struck, some wounding Baduhanna horribly. A sword pierced her belly, an arrow her shoulder, leaving the demi-goddess weeping. My bear shape, huge, ten feet and massive, felt the pains as well. I reared, took steps forward, and buried the draugr under a massive claw. Then, I ripped the claw across his face, throat, and body, leaving him in shreds, and I raged and roared, danced around and on the corpse, breaking its gear, its bones cracking. An arm flew in an arc, gold glittering on its wrist, a leg was rolling to be dog feed, and the skull was powder. I scattered all of it around, roaring in pain and rage, and in the end, the thing was a mess one would never recognize.

  I tottered, let myself change to human-sized Maskan, panted on all fours, as I crawled to Baduhanna.

  She leaned down, breathing hard, pale and shuddering. Nobles covered her, some driving the few enemies away, back down the hill. I turned to watch the enemy streaming around the shield wall for the West and East. Many were still fighting, and I saw the men I had led to the field dying in droves, against some surrounded companies of the Hammer Legion, but most of the foe were moving away, their coherence gone.

  “Was this it?” Baduhanna breathed, trying to stay erect. “They couldn’t do better?” She was touching the wounds around her body, tugging at the sword. “Missed the heart, eh?” She was lifting her armor immodestly, grasping an arrow in her shoulder, shaking her head in pain as it came off. “What happened with Ban and Hilan?” she asked.

  “Dagnar’s gone, Ban murdered, and I killed Hilan.”

  “Balic only sent one and a half legions here?” she whispered, eyeing me. “Though the draugr were a surprise I could have done without. They nearly had me.” She smiled at me. “I thought you dead.”

  “Balic is in Dagnar, trapped,” I said, and spat blood as I rolled to my back. Her eyes went to my side, and there, deep under the chain, was a terrible length of spear shaft.

  I saw her coming, and leaning over me. “Your face, and so much more. You must …” She went quiet, staring down at me. “I am what I am.”

  “I know,” I said weakly. “You should have told me about the past.”

  “You should have obeyed. You know of the Queen of the Draugr?”

  I nodded weakly. “I know. Dagnar’s a ruin, Mir was back, and—”

  “Shh,” she said weakly. “I’ll try to save our lives.”

  I felt coldness in my soul. I blinked and saw, or thought I saw, the cold fields of Nifleheim, and nearly felt myself stepping into the snowy fields of my homeland. I also knew it was death calling. I’d pass by my home, and trek to River Gjöll, and then, I’d cross the bridge which takes one to Helheim. I clutched her hand furiously. “Tired,” I said.

  I gazed at Baduhanna, who was surrounded by our soldiers.

  She was nodding, cursing, and gathering spells of healing. She was alive, but barely. I turned my face to look around. The legion was scattering. The nobles were cheering, men falling over, screams, howls of the damned, and challenges of heroes, many freshly made, boomed in the field. I saw the dverger, who were killing the brave, unyielding foes with no mercy. The flag of the Six Spears had been trampled to the bloody mud.

  Ragga was holding my shield on a pole on the hill, screaming my name.

  To the north, I saw how a general of the legions was fleeing, and honey-colored hair was flashing, a woman on horse riding at him with a spear. It was Quiss. She stabbed, guarded by the Atenites, and I laughed softly, as the General fell on the horse’s neck. I heard men shriek, “Quiss! Queen Quiss the Slayer!”

  The enemy finally ran, and the surrounding enemy retreated. They ran for the army of the East, skirting around the exhausted nobles fighting in heaps of their fellows and slain horses. The eastern legions were backing off, their horns blaring. Thrum’s dverger were running after the scattering enemy, and men were looting the dead.

  “Balic is alive?” she said weakly, as she grasped the wooden shaft on my side. “And we have to stop Crec still.”

  “They have Morag and my mother,” I told her, and shrieked with pain, as she removed the thing, and tossed it away. Blood was pumping out slowly.

  “And the Black Grip,” she agreed darkly. “They will have sent your father’s draugr-corpse and mother’s to safety. They still have to take the fortress in Mara’s Brow,” she said tiredly, her hands glowing with healing powers. “They will sail, and wait for Crec to conquer Falgrin. It is a terrible fortress to take, Mara’s Brow, so they tell me. I set down laws to guard the cave they sealed her in, but never saw the fort itself built. We shall brave the winter storms in the northern passes, and hope Balic doesn’t get there before us. Alas, we have no fleet.”

  Balic would indeed sail there, if he survived Dagnar. He’d rush now.

  Baduhanna turned me around. There were arrows jutting in her glowing body, but I felt better suddenly. I was weak still, but better, the pain inside less, and I saw many of my wounds close, as her hands glowed. Scars replaced most my wounds, and I smiled at her gratefully. She might have been cruel and casual with the lives of men, but there was good in her as well, as she nodded down at me, happy I was going to survive. She looked like a goddess, but a messy one. Her eyes glinted. “I’m sorry. I spent a lot of such power during the battle. I have none left today.”

  “Will you survive?” I asked, worried.

  She smiled. “If the battle is finished, I think so.” She frowned. “Something’s different. You have changed. Something … in you.”

  I nodded heavily, eyeing the army around us, and the East, where the enemy was backing off for the Hillhold. Quiss was on a horse, riding behind a noble shield wall, screaming at the retreating Aten legion, many staring at her with astonishment. Some were standing still, others leaving.

  Baduhanna chuckled, wiping blood off her chest. “She has changed you,” she said simply. “First you loved a dead one,” she said sadly, “then a goddess, if you ever did, indeed, could, and now, a human princess, who looks a bit like both of the others.”

  She was right. I seemed to have a preference for fierce blondes.

  “Third times the charm,” she laughed. “Perhaps you found balance through mistakes?”

  “Perhaps I did,” I murmured “But, I don’t wish to be the King. Not after Dagnar.”

  “You need me to win the war,” she said resolutely. “I need to rest, but we shall move. Perhaps we can take Hillhold back. Hilan’s betrayal … they say she opened the doors to the enemy, and Lord Ban’s men were all butchered in their sleep.”

  “We will find a way,” I said, unsure of it.

  “Good,” Baduhanna said. “Forget kingships and such. I think you already have, and if you found me cruel, I found you stupid to insist, though, I admit, you were right about Hilan. And yet, you have seen the crown is a heavy thing one must grow into. We will have to win, together, before any kings are made. You need bandages, still. Some wounds are bleeding profusely.” She saw Illastria approaching. Her astonished smile was wide, as the old woman smiled back, and rushed for her, weeping. She carried her bag of healing, like she would a child.

  “What did they do to you, my goddess?” she asked, as she reached her. “I will help you!”

  Baduhanna was laughing, weakly, as she hugged her fiercely. “I’m so glad you were found! I was looking for you before we rode out,” Baduhanna said, with such joy, it was hard to think she could be heartless. “I’ve missed you, old one.”

  Illastria’s face was wrecked with sorrow. She was weeping, her eyes dry and tearless as bleached bone, and feverish. Her hand was inside the bag.

&nb
sp; I surged, howled with pain as I did, but it was too late.

  Illastria rammed what was a dverg-crafted sword into Baduhanna’s heart.

  Baduhanna looked down at the blade, then fell onto my arms, shuddering.

  Silence.

  Illastria pulled away, swaying, her face running. She let go of her disguise, and Balissa, pale, a draugr, sat there trembling, not meeting my eye. She was human sized, rotten, her hair half torn, and one eye was missing. She had clearly been tortured before her death. “I won’t fight you. She only commanded me to do this one thing. Mir did.” She looked worn. “They are cruel things.”

  I stared at her in shock. She was worn, tattered, and ultimately, sorry and sad.

  She went on. “I am sorry, Maskan. Mir … she caught me soon after I left you. She tortured, killed, and raised me. And if I hadn’t known it before, none can disobey their mistress.”

  “Balissa …”

  She shook her head. “No, she’s gone. This is … less. I failed. Mir planned it all well. She thought my shape changing ability would serve well, and she was right. She forced poor Shaduril into her schemes as well. I’m sorry for Illastria. I killed her. Hid her corpse in a sewer. It was fast. Shaduril helped me.”

  I held Baduhanna, eyeing her in shock. “You …”

  Balissa smiled sadly. “I was Mir’s backup plan from the moment they lured us in to that house. They always meant to shoot me with that ballista, not you. Balic wanted you, but she wanted me. She saw far. She thought Illastria was the key to killing Baduhanna, and not a host of Guard. Balic’s an idiot. Now she will have the glory of this deed as well.”

  “I will let her see none of it,” I whispered. Baduhanna was not moving. I couldn’t understand it. The silence in the shocked troops around me was absolute.

  She nodded. “Good. She wanted to make sure I succeed, and risked much, eh? But I guessed fooling you with Shaduril’s face would not be easy. Kill her slowly.”

  “I will kill her,” I said. “I will.”

  “She’s a slave to Balic,” she said. “She obeyed when she had to. She sent you away to Aten-Sur, but always broke the rules when possible. Poor Shaduril. She used her girl to shield herself from her fellow draugr soon after recapturing Shaduril. You have the earrings?”